Question

Should we encourage our child to believe in Santa?

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My husband and I are trying to decide what to tell our son about Santa Claus. I still recall how hurt I was when I learned as a young child that my parents had lied to me about this. Our son is too young to know the difference now, but my husband and I both love Christmastime and we want it to be special for him without having to lie to him in the years to come.

Mom Answers

My husband and I have told our three year old about Santa and plan to tell our two month old. The Christmas season is such a magical time of year and Santa is a lot of that magic. If you think back to your childhood before you found out he wasn't real you'll realize that Christmas eve was so exciting and the whole season was so fun from writing him letters to going to visit him at the mall to leaving out his cookies and listening for reindeer on the roof. I personally miss that feeling of excitement and anticipation that comes around Christmas. I also know that I do not hold anything against my parents for letting me believe, nor have I ever met anyone who did. You are also keeping them from being different from most of the other children, my step sisters were never allowed to believe and the don't share the same fond Christmastime memories that my siblings and I do. Another selfish reason to allow them to believe is that when you help your children prepare for Santa's arrival it brings back some of those magical feelings in yourself.

Oh -sorry one more thing that has most likely been said -my son loves to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus at Christmas and we have a Jesus birthday cake. I am going to have him come with me next year as we give presents "to Jesus" at a local shelter or drop off -- He said -"If you have done it unto the least of these -you have done it unto me". The goodness we feel at Christmas is God's love demonstrated and celebrated:) Enjoy Him... and play with your kids:)

These are all good points. I think it is a great idea to tell your children at whatever age you think is appropriate (we have started trying to -our son is 3) about St. Nicholas and what a wonderful loving giving person he was/is -- and that we should be that way too. It is a great time to "be" Santa and do an angel tree together or something. Santa is magical and I think he can be kept as fun and still the truth of the season be told -- Christ came out of love for us. And - St. Nicholas was a loving, giving man who helped the poor. Happy Holidays and God Bless.

Santa claus Can by taught and Jesus can be taught! Santa maybe a myth but his story tells of a fable of peace and happiness. And jesus is about him being born on a special night. But if you truly research christmas you would find that jesus was born in warmer conditions such as may/june for remeber people had to travel to bethlehem and sheperhds would of had there sheep in and not in the middle of an open field in bad wheather!! So tell both stories of the mystical old man called claus and of the mystical reason of why jesus was born on such a night. Just remeber that no matter what christ mass(christmas) is remebering that God send his son so we could have a sense of peace her with our fellow men and hope of a future here after we leave.

Yuck, yuck, yuck!! I hate the idea of Santa Clause being the "excitement" and "wonder" of Christmas! We believe that allowing a child to believe that Santa is the most magical and wonderful part of Christmas robs them of the depth of meaning behind the holiday. Our children are young but already they undrestand WHY we even have a holiday such as Christmas (the birth of our Savior) and they excitedly prepare for it for weeks. We give gifts to others as a symbol of Jesus, the greatest gift ever given. Christmas is absolutely our favorite time of the year for our entire family and we have never relied on Santa to make it "special" for us. The idea of Santa reduces the celebration of the day to something shallow and material. I don't want my children to be shallow and material adults, why teach them to be shallow and material children?

If you take away your child's option to believe in Santa then you are taking away a small part of the spirit of childhood. You can share the child's belief in Santa along with the religious aspects of this wonderful day of the birth of our savior! So many of you are worried about the "lie" you are supposedly telling your child but, what about the opposite affect - your child wondering why you did not allow them to believe? I still believe in Santa because there is just a part of my childhood I refuse to let go of. That helps me to relate to my children and I will still be able to say to them one day -the spirit of Santa is as real as you believe! Just don't ever forget the real meaning of the day. God Bless and Happy Holidays to all.

At our house, the emphasis of the holidays is the religious meaning and significance. However, our kids love the story and the excitement of the secular holiday as well; although they don't believe in Santa Claus, they play along and won't ruin the story and the belief for other children. (for fun, we often label a few of their presents, "from Santa" or "from George Bush", which will elicit giggles and make us laugh, too.)
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It is wrong to have your child believe in something that has nothing to do with Christmas and something that isnt true. Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ, our brother who died for our sins so that we may have life more abunduntly. You should not teach your child of a santa claus. Its not right. We grew up knowing there was no such thing. Dont lie to your children.

I believe that you shouldn't lie about santa clause or even celebrate christmas because it all is a lie. God nor Jesus told us when he was born or even to celebrate it. There is so much to this that makes it a lie and the bible says, "That all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire that burn with brimstone."

I don't think that childen should believe in Santa because it is a lie and what if one year you are not able to get gifts then they will be hurt. It is okay to give gifts however the reason for the season is Jesus.

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